Opinion

All those who have served on both the Utilities Board and the County Council – and have seen the relationship between them from both sides – feel strongly that the proposed change in the Charter would be damaging both to Utility users and county citizens in general.

I have been overseeing or watching Utilities Department operations for more than 30 years. My experience during the 10 years I spent on the County Council and my 10 years on the Utilities Board make me believe that the present charter affecting utilities has worked Read More

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By KYLE WHEELER
Los Alamos

On Nov. 4, we will be asked to vote on two questions on the ballot related to the county charter, a document that was adopted by the voters and that has served us well for many years.

I am a long time resident of Los Alamos. I grew up in Los Alamos, have served on a county board and on the county council, and I have spent quite a few hours of my life since 2010 serving on the Charter Review Committee (CRC), where we went through the current charter very carefully before recommending to the council the changes now before you. The people who crafted our current charter, passed in 1968 Read More

We can now make fuel for our cars from wastes. Called “cellulosic ethanol,” this fuel is identical to the corn ethanol fuel that comprises 10 percent of the ingredients that make up the fuel we call ‘gasoline’, but, this ethanol is made from wastes – all kinds of wastes, as well as non-food crops. Cellulosic ethanol is now being made on a commercial scale by a number of different processes. Because it uses wastes, and non-food crops grown on marginal (draught ravaged) land, this technology can be of great importance Read More

This stunning 1972 T-top Corvette convertible is a bit young to be representing the Class of ’64 for their 50^th Reunion entry in the Los Alamos High School Homecoming Parade, but it is so beautiful and its owner, Mike Luna is also a LAHS grad . . . well, we just couldn’t resist.

In spite of the closed street and construction project, the County agreed to allow the LAHS Homecoming Parade to proceed from 4^th Street on Central all the way to Canyon Road and then to Sullivan Field.

We were excited to showcase our community to returning classmates and are grateful to Mike Johnson, Debbie Read More

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A principal argument to justify the proposed restructuring of County Utilities is to increase its “accountability,” to its customers, all of us, by fundamentally altering the relationship between the Board of Public Utilities (BPU), the Department of Public Utilities and the County Council. Increased “accountability” was rejected by voters in 1966, has proven unnecessary since, and carries great risks.  Voters who value their utility service and their pocketbooks Read More

A few letter writers have opposed approval of the Charter Amendments to be voted on in the Nov. 4 general election, essentially arguing that the status quo should be preserved … because that’s the way things have always been. 

Let’s look at specific issues:

First, Los Alamos County government structure is unusual in that 40 percent of our community’s budget, public utilities, is controlled by an organization not explicitly under our council or county administration. Read More